Another Review Comparing Agenda Fusion To Pocket Informant

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://www.mobileslash.com/cms_view_article.php?aid=12">http://www.mobileslash.com/cms_view_article.php?aid=12</a><br /><br />"As I begin to write this review of Agenda Fusion vs Pocket Informant, I honestly don't know which one I am going to choose as a final winner. I am hoping that throughout the process of writing this, I will reach a decision. My problem currently lies on the fact that I like them both for different reasons and in fact I wish I could combine the best attributes of each to form the perfect program. But alas, I can not."<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/hansberry/2003/20030912-afvspi.gif" /><br /><br />This is a good review and well thought out. I will say this though. You should <i>still</i> download both apps and take advantage of the trial periods. I won't tell you who won in this review, but I will tell you why the winner was picked. The author really liked the Week View of one over the other. Personally, I never use the week view. I find it the least useful of the calendar views, which just highlights that the "P" in "PIM" stands for Personal, and not only is it your personal data, but it is your personal preference in how that data is displayed, so chances are, whichever app you pick, you'll pick it for different reasons than Matt, I, or anyone else will.<br /><br />If you are in the market though for one of these Super-PIMs, this article is a must read. Enjoy, and thanks for the review Matt Kitchen! :way to go:

[Tek]

Least useful eh? What is the most useful in your opinion then?

May God Be With You.
-Matt

[Ed Hansberry]

Least useful eh? What is the most useful in your opinion then?

May God Be With You.
-Matt
I spend about 85% of my time in Agenda View with tasks showing and the other 15% in Month View. I keep trying to use Week View but it just doesn't work for me.

[Tek]

ah, i see. Well personal preference makes the world go round... or something like that...???

Enjoi.
-Matt

[Ed Hansberry]

ah, i see. Well personal preference makes the world go round... or something like that...???
Yup. Hence my comment - find it the least useful of the calendar views, which just highlights that the "P" in "PIM" stands for Personal, and not only is it your personal data, but it is your personal preference in how that data is displayed...

[BudPritchard]

Both are excellent programs.
I chose PI because of their support site bulletin board.
Easy way to stay in touch with the developer and other users.

[Rok]

Not an entirely accurate review.

Quote: "The current day is always the largest and the other days go from left to right (even though for some reason my eyes keep wanting to go from top to bottom)" (pertaining to PI's Week View)

PI allows you to arrange days in Week View top-to-bottom style. You can also select the size for the current day (so it can be the same size as the rest). You can select to always have the week start with current day, or have an "actual" week view starting with Monday, Sunday or whatever you choose. So Matt's statements regarding PI in this area are quite false. It's actually very customizable and this is also one of the reasons I myself prefer PI.

Cheers,
Rok

[petvas]

I also disagree with this review. PI is more customizable, has many more features..
AF has a cleaner interface and is very fast.
For me, PI is for the power user

[CTSLICK]

I think the author missed a couple of things with regard to PI

Yes, AF has included the current task list along with the weekly view of your appointments. This way you can view all your week's appointments and your tasks in one glance.

PI does this as well, just enable tasks on the Week View

Now before I even show you the separate task management part of the application, keep in mind that AF has task management included with several of the appointment views as well. This does already give AF an advantage in this area.

PI allows you to display tasks and work with tasks in every calendar view so I am not quite sure what the author is trying to state here.

First off, in viewing the actual tasks, AF allows you to view both your completed and uncompleted in separate categories in which you can minimize either one. In PI you must go into the task options and choose to display either just the uncompleted ones or the completed along with the uncompleted ones.

PI has the same functionality if you use the Group by Completion function.

I also think the author short changes the Task Priority Manager Feature in PI.

Just my .02

[huangzhinong]

I choose AF too. My reason is AF is faster and cleaner than PI, which I never succeed in figuring out how to use.

The author's opinion about Alarm notes in AF is COMPLETELY WRONG in this review. AF uses the buildin note standard format for its alarm notes which can be viewed and edited in buildin note program.

[entropy1980]

Guys guys guys again it's personal preference....some people like one for one reason or another.

[CTSLICK]

Guys guys guys again it's personal preference....some people like one for one reason or another.

Actually, my comments were directed at statements regarding PI functionality that I felt were incorrect. That's all. I completely respect the author's right to prefer one over the other. :)

Well...ok...I did make that one statement about short changing the the Task Priority Manager. As you say...personal preferences.

[ikesler]

I think the author missed a couple of things with regard to PI

Yes, AF has included the current task list along with the weekly view of your appointments. This way you can view all your week's appointments and your tasks in one glance.

PI does this as well, just enable tasks on the Week View

Now before I even show you the separate task management part of the application, keep in mind that AF has task management included with several of the appointment views as well. This does already give AF an advantage in this area.

PI allows you to display tasks and work with tasks in every calendar view so I am not quite sure what the author is trying to state here.

First off, in viewing the actual tasks, AF allows you to view both your completed and uncompleted in separate categories in which you can minimize either one. In PI you must go into the task options and choose to display either just the uncompleted ones or the completed along with the uncompleted ones.

PI has the same functionality if you use the Group by Completion function.

I also think the author short changes the Task Priority Manager Feature in PI.

Just my .02

Totally agree....... in the tasks comment he says later that in PI tasks in views "can be done with some tweaking"....... very little tweaking.... just one check mark. :)
Either way, I love reading these reviews and think PI is still far ahead than AF...... but to each his own! :D

[cnyprecast]

I also disagree with this review. PI is more customizable, has many more features..
AF has a cleaner interface and is very fast.
For me, PI is for the power user

I would also say that although PI seems more for the power user, it can also be easily configured to be very basic, clean and easy to use.

I also feel that the PI screen shots used in this review tend to mislead the reader a bit. PI can be easily set up to compare quite favorably with and in many cases far surpass the appearance and functionality shown for AF.

I am a heavy task user and I also put my calendar though its paces. I have used both programs, and for me, PI is superior in both areas. I love PI and all that it does for me every day!

Finally, I would agree with others who recommend trying out both programs yourself. Take the time to explore and tinker.... don't go by this review which I agree is not entirely accurate. As petvas writes above, PI is more customizable and has many more features.

[ctmagnus]

Of course, any honourable math geek loves PI.

:mrgreen:

[Jeff Rutledge]

Of course, any honourable math geek loves PI.

:mrgreen:

That was bad....

It took me a second too. It's like a joke grenade, you pull the pin, count to 10 and...
:lol:

[ojlittle]

I prefer PI as well. I had too many speed issues & stability issues with AF. I prefer the month view about 95% of the time. All of my appts. are set up with different icons. I associate the icons with the events. If I don't remember something I just click the day & that little bar comes up at the bottom revealing the events. How cool is that! (AF may do that too, I really don't remember)

[Tek]

LOL!!!!
:D
I LOVE YOU GUYS!!! This is what makes the PPC community so great! OK... where to start... sorry if this gets kind of long, i got a lot of replyin to do!

Rok:
I was talking about the screen shot... as in that setting... as in the basic config... maybe the term "always" was a little strong, i will change that...

CTSLICK:
I put this under weekly view "*You can turn on a task viewing function in their weekly view but is crowded and not pleasing to the eye.*" and this at the end "To make myself clear, PI does have a way of turning on tasks in their appointment views. These viewings are not nearly as nice as the
way AF incorporates theirs, but is still doable with some tweaking..." ... i thought would cover it, sorry if i was mistaken...

huangzhinong:
I emailed AF about their notes and they confirmed what i said... so i don't quite understand where your coming from. Yes the body is viewable and editable i'm sure, but the titles do not sync and the notes created in Notes do not sync w/ AF... if you want, you can email me and i will send you our email conversation... the word syncing for me means it goes both ways... i can create a note in Notes and it will transfer to AF and i can create a note in AF and it will go to Notes...

cnyprecast:
Yes, i agree PI is probably more for power users and is more customizable... but i'm not going to spend hours customizing it just to face off its optimized version against AF. I would say 75% of PIM users are not power users and want functionality "out of the box" so to speak... that's me :wink: . I've never used any 3rd party PIM apps before installing and testing out these two... I was trying to do a fresh review from someone's perspective, a business professional for example, that just got their 1st PPC and was lookin to get a PIM program... You made me realize that i didn't convey this, so i think i'll add a few sentences about this and a few sentences about the customization ability of PI and my thoughts on this concerning this review... Thank You.


If i missed any body i apologize, let me know.

On a personal note, although i found some responses harsh, i took them with a grain of salt. I love the PDA community and I love you guys and thank you for taking the time to read my article. All your questions, comments and snide remarks will hopefully make my next review even better. Everyone have a fabulous day and if you need anything further you can email me at [email protected]

May God Be With You.
-Matt


p.s. Sorry i didn't quote their replys i thought it would make the post too long...

[SassKwatch]

Personally, I never use the week view. I find it the least useful of the calendar views,
Ditto.

[SassKwatch]

I prefer the month view about 95% of the time. All of my appts. are set up with different icons. I associate the icons with the events.
Iconic Month View is where PI falls short in comparison.....IMO. Two things I dislike....

1) Only appointments are displayed via Icon. Tasks get a 'count' in the upper right corner, but if assigned to a Category w/ an associated icon, there's currently no way to make that icon appear in MV.

2) If an appointment is assigned to more than one Category, and each of the Categories has an associated icon...guess what.....each and every one of those icons will be displayed. Very possible to have 1 meeting scheduled for any given day, but have 2 or more icons displayed for that one meeting.

I ran AF for over a yr, and heard so many good things about PI that I finally decided to give it a try a few months back. There definitely is a lot to like about it, but the handling of the above has me leaning towards going back to AF more every day.

[ombu]

Started reading this review and soon I 've found this:


These are the two weekly views. PI's is pretty basic. The current
day is always the largest and the other days go from left to right

:?:

O.K., this was enough but I gave it another chance and nothing was different, so I gave up, I won't waist my time reading a review with so many mistakes when PI comes to stage, I don't know which PIM is better cause I only use PI and can't say nothing against AF, I'm a happy PI user and sure there are AF users as glad as me with their choice, but I know PI very well and more than a few things here are uncomplete to say the least and let me say there are wrong statements too, of course new users don't get a fair advice here IMHO.

I've seen other reviews were authors clearly lean towards AF and that's right with me, but those were well informed and written, not the case here, author doesn't know a single thing about PI. :evil:

Just my thoughts, no war wanted.

Regards.

[ombu]

Of course, any honourable math geek loves PI.

:mrgreen:

:rotfl:

I love it, yep, can't help it, my day is done!!!

[CTSLICK]

CTSLICK:
I put this under weekly view "*You can turn on a task viewing function in their weekly view but is crowded and not pleasing to the eye.*" and this at the end "To make myself clear, PI does have a way of turning on tasks in their appointment views. These viewings are not nearly as nice as the way AF incorporates theirs, but is still doable with some tweaking..." ... i thought would cover it, sorry if i was mistaken...


Works for me...thanks. :)

[Jeff Rutledge]

2) If an appointment is assigned to more than one Category, and each of the Categories has an associated icon...guess what.....each and every one of those icons will be displayed. Very possible to have 1 meeting scheduled for any given day, but have 2 or more icons displayed for that one meeting.

I'm not sure how else you could display it. Personally, if I feel the need to assign more than one category to an appointment, I want to see this displayed in Icon View. Also, if you were to display only one category, how would the app know which one to show?

[SassKwatch]

I'm not sure how else you could display it. Personally, if I feel the need to assign more than one category to an appointment, I want to see this displayed in Icon View. Also, if you were to display only one category, how would the app know which one to show?
There are places where it might be desirable to display the icons for each Category associated with an appointment. But in MV, the idea for me is to get a quick visual of where my busiest days exist so I know where not to plan anything additional. One meeting displaying multiple icons is misleading for those purposes.

AF displays only 1 icon in such purposes. Or it did up through v4.93...I haven't yet tried v5.x, but would assume that hasn't changed. The one icon that is displayed is representative of the first Category in your list with an associated icon. To be sure, that is not a perfect solution either if one uses MV to search for meetings assigned specific Categories. But for the purpose mentioned above, it is *much* more useful.

[mhowie]

I'm not sure how else you could display it. Personally, if I feel the need to assign more than one category to an appointment, I want to see this displayed in Icon View. Also, if you were to display only one category, how would the app know which one to show?
There are places where it might be desirable to display the icons for each Category associated with an appointment. But in MV, the idea for me is to get a quick visual of where my busiest days exist so I know where not to plan anything additional. One meeting displaying multiple icons is misleading for those purposes.

AF displays only 1 icon in such purposes. Or it did up through v4.93...I haven't yet tried v5.x, but would assume that hasn't changed. The one icon that is displayed is representative of the first Category in your list with an associated icon. To be sure, that is not a perfect solution either if one uses MV to search for meetings assigned specific Categories. But for the purpose mentioned above, it is *much* more useful.

I have desired that PI offer the best of both worlds for my needs... the ability to selectively display one icon (i.e., the user decides which single icon is displayed if multiple categories are selected in iconic MV).

[ctmagnus]

I have desired that PI offer the best of both worlds for my needs... the ability to selectively display one icon (i.e., the user decides which single icon is displayed if multiple categories are selected in iconic MV).

I concur. Alternatively, a possible idea would be to have the user be able to prioritize categories, so if said user selects categories a, b, c and d for an item and category b is highest priority for that user, the icon corresponding to category b would show up.

The advantage to this route is it wouild save a step or two in the creation of each item.

[JF in Detroit]

BTW, AF shows multiple icons for tasks and appointments in week and month views. (v4.93).

[Mark R Penn]

Well now!

There's plenty of reviews of both products out there, and most are fair. They might not all draw the conclusion I'd come to (that PI is the better app) - it's about 50/50 - but they do at least give both a fair chance and then draw their conclusions based on the facts and, inevitably, the reviewers preferences.

But this review is so inaccurate it's just plain missleading. I understand the reviewers stement that he wanted it to be a review of the "out of the box" experience, but if that's the case, why did he not stick to the "out of the box" setup - from the screenshots it's clear that he didn't. Anyway, neither app is intended to suit all users out of the box - that's why both are configurable, and why they are called personal information managers. Out of the box really does not apply to either, as most users will want to, and can, change them.

I'm not going to go through the review line by line (although I could, and nearly every line is just plain wrong). It's enough to offer just one example:

PI has a search tab. This a nice additional feature but don't be
mislead, AF is not with out a search function. You can access AF's
search feature via their menu depending which on which section of the
application you are in.

Wouldn't it have been an idea to review this search feature in both apps? The suggestion is that both are simillar, but they are not. Here's my comment on the search feature from the PI forum (http://www.pocketinformant.com/Forums/viewtopic.php?t=1704):

Fusion Find (not a view as such, more a separate tool, but available none the less) lets you search either all items, or appointments, tasks or contacts only, with no filters or date ranges applied . PI's search view lets you search any combination of items, including journal, and to apply filters and date ranges to the search. It also supports custom views, so you can save search setups to create specific views (appointments and journal for Bob, for example).

And that's "out of the box"!!!

Combine that with custom views (not mentioned in the review - unbelievable!) and you begin to see the power of PI compared to AF.

Finally, even after editing the auther still says:

AF's task viewing feature is still more functional and I do prefer it, but none the less this is something else to consider

How exactly?, what additional functionality does AF have compared to PI for tasks? I know PI has hierarchical tasks, a more advanced drag and drop functionality, a very advanced priority manager, task view search bar, A-Z/0-99 priorities not just A-Z/0-9, category colouring and (as with all the other PI views except notes) custom views, while AF has none of those. What is the "more functional" nature of AF that the auther mentions?

AF's a great product, and I have absolutely no problem at all with people or even reviewers prefering it over PI, but come on, at least take the trouble to understand the apps you are reviewing.

[kaiden.1]

It's PI for me. I have had lots of stability problems with AF. And as a result I have grown to love PI.

Thanks for everyones comments, but it's PI for me! :D

[rhmorrison]

And there is another Review (http://www.gadgetaddict.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=913&highlight=agenda+fusion#913) of AF 5.0 vs. PI 4.5 on http://www.gadgetaddict.com/forums/